Rain
by Kurama Barton
Summary: An unexpected visit at a rainy night throws a certain Kritiker into turmoil


© 2000, by Kurama Dylan Barton.  
Disclaimer: The points of view and events depicted here sometimes do not coincide with the actual Weiss Kreuz storyline or real life. I know I don't own Weiss Kreuz, so it would be pointless to sue me. Weiß Kreuz and all its likenesses are a copyright of Takehito Koyasu and Project Weiß. Please go to Ex Venia Cecidit for more notes. Rain 

  
She swiveled around and faced the rainy gust streaming through the panes, pulling back the short skirt over one leg and applying the scar-removal cream for the fifth time that day. _Damn this rain_, she thought, the cold wind seeping up her thigh. _Now I can't go home_. She unhappily massaged her scar, straining to see by the lone glow of a nearby lampshade. _That… Farfarello…? Bastard_. Once a wound from that lunatic --- still hard to erase. _But good thing I can still wear skirts…_

_I hope you're dead_.

Finishing with the cream and leaving her skirt up for the leg to dry, she unclipped and re-clipped her hair into a loose bun up her head, shut the lampshade and stared at the wet and busy street below her office. People rushing for cover or home under the sudden downpour, and loud traffic. She wished she had driven here in her car, instead of flagging that taxi…

_Persia_. He would be the one dragging her from her overtime and driving her home…

She silently cursed that mist in her eyes. _No point in remembering..._ He won't be back, and no one else in the office cared enough to insist that she go home and leave the paperwork for tomorrow. No one to tell her that it's just okay to procrastinate… _But if only you have driven me home for one last time…_

A little yawn, checks at the cream. Still not dry. _Now… where will I sleep tonight…?_ Flag another taxi… _No_. Glumly looked at the impossibly long line of cars and buses below. _Here…?_

"I don't think so," a smooth voice suddenly whispered at her back. She tried to swivel around, reflexes wanting to reach for that gun under her desk, but those hands have already pinned down her forearms on the armrests of her chair. Hot breath between her neck and ear, wet hair against her cheek. She saw her attacker's reflection on the glass panes however, quickly allaying her fears. An all too familiar greeting, but still brought her chills…

She just watched then as one of those hands reached out and covered her scar with her skirt again. "Kyoko, shut the window --- you're getting goosebumps."

Sigh. "So how are you doing, Schuldich?"

She had just found her target.

He was a few meters away, at a back-to-back bench near the gymnastic bars, looking as casually seated as possible opposite another man reading a newspaper. He began to talk quietly, as if only to himself, staring at the growing waves in the college dam's water.

Kyoko then tried to look convincingly busy fiddling with the camera at her hand, straining to hear the cackle of conversation being picked up by the almost invisible receiver behind her ear, the small of her back against the railing by the dam. "Buy-bust operation would be tonight. We should move…" her target was saying. She strained to hear some more, but her receiver just squawked more wind interference. _Shit…_

Then suddenly it began to rain.

Her target sped up his report to the man with the newspaper, standing up upon finishing and acting like hurrying for his car lest he blow his cover. The other man had stood up too, scanned for shelter and found a nearby tree. She quickly ducked under another tree, but she could see that the rain had already given her a dose. _Clothes later,_ she scolded herself, memorizing the car's plate number and watching her target make his run. The man almost tripped then over a thick-haired cat crossing his path, apparently desperately heading for a cover of its own before it could be completely soaked.

For a moment both man and animal froze, staring at each other --- her target in disgust and the cat in fright. A split-second later the irritated man kicked the cat out of his way, reached the car and fumbled for the lock with his key.

Kyoko watched the cat fly, half-bounced on the ground and half-rolled a few meters more on its side before settling dangerously near the edge of the dam. The car screeched away then, spraying water all around --- and she watched in horror as some of the spray hit the creature and pushed it completely off the edge.

She suddenly found herself running towards the dam. _What…_ Realizing eventually, she knelt by the edge, ignoring the rain, relieved to see that the screaming cat had at least some sense to cling on to some tufts of wet grass down the slope. But the water was churning dangerously below…

"Here," she whispered calmly, smiling as she tried to extend her arm to reach for the cat's. The cat just screamed some more, eyes widening. Apparently traumatized seeing another human when one had just kicked him a while ago.

_It's okay…_ The creature's arms were actually too far to reach. She slipped under the railing then, oblivious to the cat's panic, one hand holding the railing above her as she bent down and extended her free hand further. But every time she almost reached the cat the cat just kept slipping.

Some shifts in the next few minutes, until she was nearly stretched out the slope. She must have looked awkward, but there was a more important matter to attend to. The cat's rear feet were already swaying in the raging tide that just seemed to swell more. She took a deep breath then, against her own fear of slipping off herself…

She grabbed those arms.

She yelped however when her body slid down further without warning, the hand clutching the railing slipping. Her grip on the animal slackened slightly… her hands already numb from the cold and rain, she realized. She was just jarred out of panic when the cat below screeched --- suddenly half of its body was being tugged by the current. _Don't tell me I'd die here…_ Trying to firm her hold on the railing, she tried propping up the arm holding the cat to push them both up, but the slippery mud was just too impossible to fight. She just bit her lip when she slipped again, her grip on the railing thinning. Now the cat was already chest down in the water… _Sorry…but it won't be long before I…_

"Giving up soon?" A chuckle behind, and an arm wrapping beneath her waist when her hand finally lost hold and she was slipping headfirst down the water. She felt her breath catch when that arm sharply yanked her out from under the railing and hoisted her up with the cat.

Propped against the railing, sitting on the muddy ground and coughing her breath back, she looked up at her savior.

Tall and not too thin, wearing a college uniform rolled at the sleeves, piercing blue eyes, short dark brown hair highlighted with sharp reddish-orange, and some hints of a devilish grin.

The man with the newspaper.

_Don't you think I deserve a thank you?_

"Impressive," the man said, crouching before her. She blinked --- she swore she heard the man talk before that, but didn't really remember seeing him open his mouth. He reached for the shivering cat by her side, gently nestling it at the crook of his waist and lap as he balanced on his toes to shield it from getting soaked further. The creature was actually so thin now that its fur had clung to its skin and bones, and suddenly it sneezed. The man grinned at the sight. "Rare to see ladies as beautiful as you are willing to get messy just to save a cat."

Kyoko tried not to blush. Her whole front was covered with mud. "Thank you for saving me."

"Anytime." He stood with the cat on one hand and the other helping her up, and together they walked to the gates, the rain soaking them forgotten. "So you study here --- I don't really remember seeing you in any of my classes."

"I'm an exchange student. I just got here this morning," she said, almost automatically. An alibi in her file… She extended a hand. "Kyoko."

The man shook the hand, looking at her curiously. "I'm also an exchange student, but I got here earlier." He took one of the cat's paws and extended it to her. "And this is the cook's cat. You should demand him a free dinner for saving it… Too fluffy, right?"

Kyoko took the paw and shook it a little, smiling. "Yes." She loved cats, and this cat looked different enough to deserve being in her collection, if the cook didn't own it. "A Himalayan breed?"

"I thought you'd say Persian." Grin. "No. A Birman one. White paws." The man held up the paw higher, the cat stirring with a screech and a little attempt to bite at his finger. She nodded.

They paused then before the corridor leading to the women's quarters --- she knew that regulations wouldn't permit any man to go further from here. The man looked at her mock-hopefully. "Can I keep it?"

"No," she laughed, taking the cat from his arms, "I found him anyway --- and I'll be using him to bribe the cook."

"Be careful then --- regulations also don't allow pets in the dorms." He laughed at the panic that crossed her face. "Don't worry, I won't tell." He waved a hand, turned to leave. She remembered then that this man was also connected to her target…

"Wait," she called out. "You haven't told me your name yet."

The man slowed in his steps, looking at her sideways, hesitating for a moment as if trying to remember his own name. "Schuldich," he finally said. "Just call me Schuldich." He waved again. "I'll be seeing you around."

He did see her around.

Bumping into each other in the corridors, small treats in the cafeteria. She hated it, knowing that they looked more like a couple as the days passed. Schuldich seemed not to notice though. They appear to be the only exchange students in that college after all, and she was an undercover agent --- she didn't know if that was the same for him. _Close, but not too close,_ she kept on reminding herself, _just get information, then trash him._

But the man was unbearably curious. He just seemed to know how to coax things out of her --- including the fact that she was actually working as a receptionist in a detective agency. She can't help but curse herself that day… _Well, at least it's a half-truth…_ She was the receptionist currently applying for a slot in a new Tokyo-based underground surveillance group called Kritiker --- her being an "exchange student" in Ottawa just part of the "requirements" she had to pass. An odd job only she could possibly choose, but then she had also seen some women in Kritiker posing as secretaries anyway.

"I have a secret of my own too," Schuldich had grinned. He leaned a little across the table then, voice suddenly lowered, "I'm a mind-reader."

She just laughed. "Kidding."

He just smiled. "It's true." He sat back in his chair, arms crossed. "You want me to tell you what you're thinking right now and previously?"

"Impossible." He leaned across the table again, an evil smirk in his eyes that made her shudder a little. "You're hiding from me some answer codes to your Calculus test right now, and you've hid another answer code from me yesterday, and the day before that, and…"

"Are answer codes all you can guess?" She jeered, knowing though that she didn't sound convincingly in control. _How did he know that…?_

"And you've just thought, 'How did he know that…?'". He grinned satisfactorily at the entrapment. "And you're panicky now…" Casual sip at his soda, but his sharp eyes remained transfixed on her wavering own. "And there's something else…"

"Stop it…" Now she was annoyed, trying to break away from eye contact and failing.

"You're hiding something else. That receptionist thing is just a half-truth," he said smoothly. "I have a vague idea of what you're actually doing in front of your computer every night, and why you just seem so secretive about it…" His voice was still lowered, now drowned out by the noise in the cafeteria, but she could still hear him quite well, feeling like he was actually a thought talking in her head… _Telepath…?!_

"… but I know well enough not to pry further," he continued, gaze softening. _A telepath as well, yes._ She heard that voice in her mind again, that voice that she kept on hearing for the past few days but not recognizing, and now it really made her angry.

"Then why didn't you pry on?! I bet you know everything about me now anyway," she lashed out, pushing away her soda in disgust. Her voice had been loud enough to attract the attention of a few students sitting at a table nearby. "I bet you can even see what I've been doing in the shower --- so why stop?" She made sure that the sarcasm hit home, and some more ears. Deep within though she was really worried that her cover was blown, if what he says is true. She wouldn't have to wait long then before the enemy hunts her down…

Schuldich just smirked back, but she could still see that faint glow of hurt in his eyes. "I'm not yet an expert in that anyway. Actually I just 'hear' you and others --- all too jumbled." Disappointed sigh. "And you hide your thoughts pretty well --- you're only the second person so far who can do that."

She calmed down a little. "Second?"

"Brad's the first. Just a friend," he waved off. Then she thought she had seen a slight red cross his face as he looked down his soda. "I like you for that --- kind of challenges me more. But I _still_ respect your trust in me, so I don't pry on." Embarrassed. "Believe me --- I don't peek in your shower."

She tried not to laugh. "That's all?"

Shrug. "We both know that you're beautiful too." His usual grin returned. "We never know --- maybe someday we'd get beyond this."

Now it was her turn to hide her blush, though not really sure if he was just joking or not.

Night. "Have you finally thought of a code name in case you get accepted? This is the only blank line left in your registry now." The agent on the computer screen looked so blank. Somehow he still didn't suspect that she was hiding something from him --- _well, not really hiding…_ She had not told him about Schuldich yet, and surprisingly she was not really planning to.

_ Why…?_

_ …I still respect your trust in me…_

She heard the familiar purr under her bed. "Birman. Have someone already taken that name?"

"Ouch," Schuldich winced, as she dabbed at the wound on his side for one last time. She turned to cutting a bandage then, and hoped that the man could not hear her thoughts right now.

She thought that she had already left him at the college six years ago, after proving to her relief that he was just an informer at the drug ring. Finishing her mission, she went back to Tokyo as fast as she had come to Ottawa, forgetting to leave him even a little goodbye note. Kritiker, even when she already got accepted, never ever knew that a Schuldich had existed. Betrayed both sides, she felt, but that was history. There had not been a day anyway since her return to Tokyo that she had not wondered how much Schuldich really knows her --- it had been too much torture thinking. _You still haven't told me how much you've read…_

_I like you…_

Her world just crashed when she learned that he was actually a member of the assassin group Schwarz, arriving to Tokyo himself a year later to work for the tycoon Reiji Takatori who was in Kritiker's hotlist.

It crashed some more when she ran into him outside a bar --- she going out and him going in with some Schwarz that she only knew by the files as Crawford and Naoe. She didn't recognize him at first because of his hair --- now long and completely dyed reddish-orange --- but when she saw those eyes, those sharp blue eyes that reflected her own surprise, she knew. _But he's an enemy…_ She suddenly found herself walking hurriedly away. _Because of caution… or embarrassment?_ She could still sense his surprised eyes follow her out…

She hoped that she would never see him again. The last thing she wanted was Kritiker knowing that she actually knew a member of Schwarz… But that hope crashed again when he suddenly came to her office one night, apparently through the fire exit. _Manx will kill me…_ Schuldich just gave her a lazy smile, seeing her panic, and he quickly disappeared the same way he got in.

From there, the late-night visits had been intermittent. She didn't bother asking him how he found her. Started talking to her, asking her how she was doing. Taught her some lessons on mind manipulation when he felt like it. She learned those lessons well, allowed that strong part to show occasionally in her usual interaction with Weiss, and at the same time learned to be comfortable again in his company. She still didn't speak much, though, careful of slipping valuable information. He had commented that it was pretty hard reading her mind now…

She doubts that he's aware that she was working for his enemies. He appeared not to realize that her office, located on the top of a skyscraper, was actually an extension to the building at the back where Persia and most of Kritiker used to work. Only Persia, Manx, and a select few knew, her skyscraper also cleverly housing a bank and all… _I hope you'd never know…_

He must have thought that she was only a plain office worker. And she never knew for sure if he's just manipulating _her_ for his own means in Schwarz.

"You shouldn't let this get soaked. Now it's infected," she scolded him lightly, gently taping the gauze over the wound. She felt the muscles tense a little under her fingers --- he was trying not to wince. _But not knowing me just the same's fair… I bet "Schuldich" isn't even your real name…_

"You're thinking things again," she heard him say above her. "Can I know?"

She finished the tape, straightened up and smiled at him. "It's nothing."

Seeing him here again after a month or so confirmed then Manx's suspicion that Schwarz was still alive. Possibly even Weiss. Now she just had to work out an alibi on how she knew… _I don't know how long I could hide you…_

"I thought you're past wondering about that," he stared at her, apparently catching her last thought, gingerly reaching for his shirt by the heater, already half-dried, and putting it on. His green coat was still dripping.

"I know." _There's no one else here but the guards and me anyway… and you…_

Schuldich grinned, reading that again. She realized that she must be getting very sleepy, that he can now hear bits from her mind. She went to the teapot at the corner.

_Where have you been anyway? I haven't seen you for a month._

_So you do miss me._ Smirk. His hand brushed at her chair by the window --- he opted to lean against her table instead and watched the traffic below. Polite enough not to soak her chair with his half-wet pants. _Bayreuth._ Germany. _You visited your homeland yet?_

She just quietly watched the cream sink in the coffee. Another part of her that she never wanted him to know. Already enough that she remembers sometimes the shame of being disowned… _Too conservative…_

_Sorry._

She didn't know how much he had read again. _Anyway…_ She handed him a cup, flopped down on her chair again and took a little sip on her own. _Too much sugar?_ She only heard a grunt. _I don't know why I'm letting you stay…_

They just drank the coffee. Polite silence. Traffic. _I don't know why I'm letting you stay…_ She is aware that the time would come that he would know who she really is. She had already fought against that Farfarello character --- no doubt she'd soon meet the other members of his group. Schuldich included… she would not be surprised if that future meeting would end with one of them down permanently…

She hoped against hope that such meeting would not occur. Never mind if Crawford or Naoe or Farfarello would be the ones who'd finish her off… _Just… not you…_

If he did know right from the start who she really is, however, why hadn't he killed her yet?

And why is she still letting him stay?

"What's wrong, Kyoko?" She thought she heard a note of suspicion. _How much had he read?_ He had also mentioned once that he was always trying to refrain from listening to her thoughts. _Kind of challenges me more…_ How much restraint, then?

The sad fate of being in Kritiker.

_I don't want to be in Kritiker anymore…_

She realized that she had not answered back yet, sensing him shift and put down his cup. Approach her chair. Leaned against it. Both stared at their reflections on the glass, trying to guess what the other is thinking…

She had always believed that she was destined to do great things. She had told her family, before she left, that she wanted to save the world. They just laughed at her, tried to break her again…

_But here I am now, saving an enemy of the world…_

Suddenly Schuldich bent down, loosely wrapping his arms around her neck. She expected him to choke her --- _He must have read much…_ --- but instead he rested his chin on her shoulder, eyes closed, much to her surprise. _He had not been like this before…_

_I missed you too, don't you know that?_ His voice --- that same voice she kept on hearing even in her dreams. _I don't even know how close we are…_ Enough to refresh that pain again in her chest, making her hold her breath and struggle to will her tears back. Guilt? Or something else…?

_Something else…_

She tried to speak. "Schul---" _You don't need to._ His voice again. She watched their reflections on the panes. His eyes were still closed. Steady breath. _Trying to read my mind again? You still haven't told me how much you've read…_

_…I still respect your trust in me…_

_…Here I am, saving an enemy of the world…_

She closed her own eyes. _I don't want to hurt you…_

Only his breath.

The cold wind.

Never mind for now...

_Thank you…_

_Anytime._

The rain still fell.


End file.
